Message 7

Martin Luther, first successful rebel against the harlot. The doctrines and origins of Lutheranism, the Church of England (Episcopal), Presbyterians, Congregationalists, and Alexander Campbell, the Campbellites.

Read 1 Tim. 4:1-3; 2 Tim. 4:1-4; Jude 3-13

I personally do not believe the Seven Churches of Asia represent seven church ages; I believe they represent seven local churches. Protestantism did not do any thing for the truth; it still continued to hold to infant baptism and didn't break away from the Church of Rome. Reformation doesn't do any good when men try to reform error. This struggle may have helped the lord's Church have periods of freedom, however, if one will study church history closely you will find that God's people simply had more persecutors to deal with after the reformation.

The Catholic Church is not the oldest church but is the oldest counterfeit. It can't go beyond the '4th century as far as an organized or recognized religious system. In 321 A.D. Constantine accepted the apostate churches as the state religion of Rome, since that time there has been official acceptance of the harlot church.

Indulgences. Martin Luther revolted against this and other errors and injustices he saw and in 1520 he established the first successful revolt against the Church of Rome. This was the beginning of the protestant reformation. The Renaissance Period reached back about two to three hundred years prior to this period and men were beginning to think for themselves and study. This led to a rebellion against corruptions, depravities, and greed in the corrupt church. John Tetzel was given the job of peddling indulgences for Pope Leo the 10th. This Pope had expensive tastes and habits and established the sale of indulgences in A.D. 1517. Later in history Cromwell's chaplain, who tried to find good in all men, said of Tetzel, "he was a monk and adulterer, a sot and a preacher, a man without any tinge of decency, and without one worthy quality." This was the Pope's indulgence commissioner. Tetzel's mode of conducting business. He and his companions would appear in a gorgeous carriage, followed by attendants finely equipped, before a city: immediately the magistrates were informed that, the grace of God and of St. Peter was at their gates. The whole population would then come out and give him a royal welcome fit for kings. Tetzel would then go to the church in the city and spread out the pope's bull on a velvet cushion with great decoration and colour. He would then begin to preach about the precious and sublime gift of indulgences and how many souls he had brought into heaven. He would also talk about the souls of loved ones being redeemed from purgatory if relatives would pay indulgences for their sins that were unconfessed. Tetzel made the claim that he had redeemed more souls than all the sermons preached by St. Peter, he also claimed there were no sins so great that indulgences could not remit. Tetzel claimed that the instant money clinked in the strong box the souls flew out of purgatory and upward to heaven.

Indulgences go back before Luther to Thomas Aquinas in the 13th century, in the 13th century John Huss denounced a papal bull because of the article on indulgences. In 1411 a papal bull was issued against the King of Naples because he refused to submit to the authority of the pope .The bull praised indulgences for anyone who died fighting in the crusade against the King of Naples. The council of Trent decreed that Christ gave indulgences to the church, divinely appointed to be used by "Christian people."

Matt.1618. Martin Luther started the Lutheran Church 1500 years too late to be authorized by Jesus Christ. Any thing started by a human is a human institution .If it has a human head it has no scriptural authority to claim to be Christ's church. There can be little doubt that Luther did much good for the religious world and God blessed any truth he preached because it was the truth. Luther continued to maintain a priestly church government and infant baptism. He also continued the idea of a state religion. These three things are the seeds of religious persecution in every age.

The Church of England came as a result of Henry the 8th and the desire to put away his wife and the Pope refused Cromwell said to him, "you are the King, write to the Pope, organize your own church, and write your own bill of divorcement." This is not verbatim but it is basically how it happened. This church also held to the same three ideas, priestly rule, infant baptism, and state religion. The persecution practices of this church put John Bunyan in jail because he refused to accept a license from the queen to preach; he would have had to stop preaching against infant baptism to get the license. So we have the Church of England since 1534. A King who wanted a religiously approved divorce started it.

Presbyterian. John Knox in Scotland, John Calvin in France and Switzerland. Both were mighty preachers and made popular what we call the doctrines of Grace. Bloody Mary, Queen of Scots said, "I fear the prayers of John Knox more than I fear all the armies of Europe." In 1541 they started a church, which kept the same three babies, priestly government, infant baptism, and state religion. It is interesting to note in the minutes of the old Westminster Assembly, which met in 1643 to 1649, that a vote was taken to determine what the Presbyterians would do concerning baptism. There were 24 votes for ilm1ersion and 25 for pouring. One vote would have caused the Presbyterians to be as cranky about baptism as the Baptists.

How this affected the Ana-Baptists. The Ana Baptists thought that all this rebellion against the Catholic Church would give them some religious liberty but what really happened was that four groups now were putting Ana Baptists in jail and laying heavy persecution on them.

Congregationalist. 1602 seems to be the year it originated in England. They carried with them infant baptism and the state church ideas and were the ones who banished Roger Williams from the Massachusetts Bay colony. From the Congregationalist movement later came the Universalist and Unitarian movements.

Methodism. John and Charles Wesley. They never intended to start a church. Francis Asbury had more to do with the rise of the Methodist "church" than did the Wesley brothers. Francis Asbury should have called himself a superintendent according to the societies in England. The Wesleys began to meet with societies to study the scriptures for themselves in 1729 and neither of them was saved at this time. According to his own testimony John Wesley was saved in 1738. Methodists never really worry about what anyone believes, they simply say come on over to our church, believe as you will and you will not be disturbed about it.

Alexander Campbell and the Campbellites. Campbell came to America from Ireland in 1807, he was a Presbyterian. He was also an immersionist and led a group of churches to be recognized as Baptists. An old Baptist association appointed a committee to investigate them and denied them seats in the' association. Campbell then set out to teach Baptists the truth on baptism and finally started the Disciples movement or Christian church movement. This formation took place about 1812 to 1826. They eventually took the name Church of Christ. Read Isa. 4:1.

Our purpose in stating all these beginnings is not to throw anyone in a bad light but simply to show that men started these churches and these statements are a matter of history. Any church started by man can't be the real thing since Jesus Christ started his church during his personal ministry.

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